Co-founded in 2000 by former Goldman Sachs technology bankers Robert Smith and Brian Sheth, the firm limits its investments to software, data and technology-enabled businesses and claims that it has never lost money on a deal.

While well-established in the U.S., the firm has become increasingly present in Europe in recent years. After buying and merging Thomson Reuters’ trade and risk management business and U.K. banking software company Misys in 2012, the firm returned to the continent in November last year to buy Advanced Computer Software, a U.K. company that provides IT services to the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

We have a system of what we call Vista Standard Operating Procedures that we drive into our companies in working with our executive leadership. We share best practices in how to execute on these transformational activities, which drives increased profitability and enhanced growth, greater customer satisfaction in terms of our products, faster releases of our [portfolio companies'] products in software, lower incidents of failure and frankly a happier workforce. I call it Private Equity 3.0.

How many funds do you manage and what have your returns been like?

Right now we have four flagship funds, two foundation funds [which invest in small and mid-cap companies] and one credit fund. Our debut fund closed this year after 14 years and it was spectacular. [The fund sold its final company, SirsiDynix, earlier this month and delivered a 2.73 times net multiple on invested capital and a 29.2% net internal rate of return overall, Dow Jones LBO Wire reported.] Our first three funds are in the top 10 funds worldwide, and I can tell you that our last three funds actually were better than the first three.

What are your plans for the next 12 months?

We will be raising an additional foundation fund, we have continued co-invest activity and we have our credit fund coming to the market sometime this year.

What challenges do private equity firms face in 2015?

Debt markets continue to be challenging for some, there’s increased competition, there’s macroeconomic effects of slowdown in certain markets. Our job is to continue to execute in our space and to continue to build our team and to expand our opportunity set worldwide.

Every company is becoming a software company in one way or another, and our job is to continue to find the best ones and to help transform them to enable them to grow and build superior products in a shorter period of time with higher reliability and protect our clients’ data from threats.

Many of the private equity industry’s biggest firms have gone public. Is this something you’re planning to do in the future?

There are no plans as of yet. We continue to what I call 'build and execute' and no plans to go public anytime soon.

You've been active in Europe in recent years, particularly in the UK. Do you have plans to open an office in London in the near future?

We continue to spend a lot of time evaluating deals in London, and companies in Europe broadly speaking, but we haven’t looked at office space yet. So I wouldn’t say that we have quotable plans to do that as of yet.

What do you do outside of work?

Philanthropically there are a number of efforts I’m involved in. Our leadership team is involved in the communities we work in, as well as in environmental conservation and economic development. One is Project Realize, where we adopt companies in inner cities in America that are typically run by men and women who are African Americans, Latinos and Asians and bring some of our proven business practices to help them run their own businesses more effectively.

We also support education activities for wounded veterans, and that ties in a little bit with my hobby — I’m a fly fisherman. At my ranch in Colorado we work on the rehabilitation of some of our veterans through outdoor activities like fly-fishing.

I’m also trying to get more music instruction and instruments into the hands of school children. Education in music is one of the principal ways that we keep creative forces moving in the minds of youth. I tell people that once you get harmony, you don’t like discord, and hopefully that helps in some small way to settle some of the challenges and the differences we see in the world.

Where do you see your firm in the next 10 years?

As I tell my folks: Onwards and upwards. Do more, better, faster. We continue to add people, resources, opportunities, capabilities, [investors] to take advantage of the marketplace we live in.